Ok, well here goes my first attempt at blogging. I have never done this before and I don't know how good I will be at it. Will I have interesting things to say? Will I have time to write? Will people actually read this? I guess we all will just have to wait to find out. But I know how much I enjoy cyberstalking y'all (this is something new I've learned how to say in Texas) out there, so now I'm trying to return the favor.
So I have arrived in Texas. It was quite the journey complete with stress, anxiety, tearful goodbyes, flat tires, smelly men, birthday cake, caribou coffee, good friends, and more tears. Catie, Merilee and I set off on Saturday morning bright and early and took our time driving to Wichita where we met up with Abi, Grant & Vanessa for a celebration of my 25th birthday. It was quite lovely. I suppose I should have some thoughts on hitting the big quarter century mark. But I feel that the event was quite over shadowed by the whole moving across the country phenomenom. Sunday morning we hit the road again and made it most of the way through Oklahoma when the tire on our trailer went flat. This would have been a nice little bump in the road if the dealer who had rented us the van + trailer had seen fit to include a jack with the two spare tires. However, they must not have felt this was a necessary. We, however, did. So we waited on the side of the road for 2 hours for Doug and his little friend Kendall (the two a fore mentioned smelly men) to show up with their brand spankin new jack and change the tire. The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful.
We arrived in Waco Sunday evening, unpacked found some food at Cricket's and went to bed. The next morning was a rough one for my girl Cate who spent the majority of the day hanging out in my new bathroom and getting a faceful of my new toilet. Even in this state of violent illness she was kind enough to clean the toilet. What can I say? I have some pretty great friends. Eventually, the time came to drive Catie and Merilee to the DFW airport. This trip went fairly smoothly--Cate survived miraculously--and they set off on the plane. I then proceeded to spend the 2 hour van drive back to Waco alternating between crying and giving myself small pep talks. It's not that I dislike Texas, it's just the overwhelming feeling of being left alone in a new place finally came crashing down on me.
Ok, here are my thoughts on Texas. It is HOT here. Temperatures normally reach the triple digits by noon. Everyone keeps asking how I'm adjusting to the heat (because everyone is real nice in Texas). I'll say it's tolerable for now. I'm hoping that I get used to it instead of it slowly driving me insane. Also, it's become clearly apparent to me that Texans like to eat. Everyone is constantly telling me where I can find good food and asking me if I've tried sweet tea yet. I have not. According to my roommate's boyfriend Justin, I need to wait for the good stuff. I'm not sure exactly where I'm supposed to find this good stuff, but I'm sure he'll let me know.
I've spent the last two days in orientation which has been more or less intense. If anything it has made me more determined and mentally prepared to take on grad school. I am very grateful that I decided to wait and not enter grad school right after I finished my bachelors program. I would not have been ready, plus I wouldn't have really known what I was doing. I am thankful for the discipline and determination that I have gained in the last 3 years that I'm going to need to depend on to get through the next two years. In my head I've been mentally comparing it to a training for a marathon, so I was definitely excited today when one of the orientation speakers made the same comparison. I've made it through 2 marathons now, so how hard can grad school be? We'll see. I've already received several dire warnings about the importance of completing all the massive amounts of assigned reading. Unfortunately this has always been my weakness. I guess we'll have to wait and see how it all shapes out.
For now I'll leave you with my school cheer which we were taught today at orientation - Sic 'em Bears!
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